Donald Trump speech becomes most watched RNC coverage with 28.4 million viewers

The final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention saw its highest viewership, averaging 25.4 million viewers across networks on Thursday. The peak viewership of 28.4 million occurred between 10:45 and 11:00 p.m., during a 90-minute speech by former president and presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Fox News Channel was the most-watched for the convention’s coverage, setting a record for cable news. Between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m., the channel averaged 10.9 million viewers, closely trailing the 11.7 million viewers combined for NBC, ABC, and CBS.

Over the convention week, Fox News averaged 7.6 million viewers. Among broadcasters, NBC led with an average of 2.9 million viewers, followed by ABC with 2.3 million and CBS with 1.7 million. On cable, CNN averaged 1.5 million viewers and MSNBC 1.1 million.

Thursday’s viewership average of 25.4 million was a 41% increase from Wednesday’s 18 million viewers, when vice presidential candidate JD Vance spoke. The first night of the convention had 18.1 million viewers, while viewership dropped to 14.8 million on Tuesday.

Trump described the assassination attempt made on him as “a providential experience,” saying, “In a certain way, I felt very safe, because I had God on my side. I really felt that” and told the crowd that he was “not supposed to be here.”